There’s a second round of Storms coming and this time they’re being called (surprise, surprise) the Storm 2. Research In Motion (RIM) and Vodafone announced the Storm 2 will be available for the holiday season in the United Kingdom and Ireland first and exclusively in Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. That’s the first official word on the phone’s release; however, its imminent arrival has been no secret in recent months.
There was no immediate word from Verizon Wireless on when the Storm 2 will be coming to the United States. However, Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal today ran a review of the new phone, saying it should arrive at Verizon in November with a $200 price tag. In a New York Times editorial published on Tuesday, Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam admitted that he’s been carrying the Storm 2 around for several weeks and even showed it off to people in New York City.
After the first Storm managed to fail on every possible front, from software to hardware, some in the industry wondered whether a complete makeover was worth the trouble for RIM, or customers, for that matter.
The BlackBerry faithful have high hopes for the new version of the Storm. The original, which some said was intended to be a competitor to the iPhone and represented Verizon’s first touch-screen device, did little to that end. Released with a touch screen of questionable design and to a host software issues, the previous Storm angered and frustrated more customers than it pleased.
If Mossberg’s review of the phone is any indication of what users can expect, there should be more than one smiling BlackBerry user on the streets in November. According to Mossberg, problems have been remedied with the Storm 2. The device has a new touch screen (one that doesn’t move), Wi-Fi capabilities, improved battery life and software.
